The Hawkeyes knew after dropping the Big Ten Tournament opener to Penn State that winning five games in four days was a tall task. They were able to win the first three and force a second matchup with Michigan, but the Wolverines used a nine run seventh inning to put the Hawkeyes away and win 13-1.

“Story of today is just that we were bad on the mound,” said Coach Rick Heller. “Some guys were worn out, some guys hadn’t pitched in a while and they didn’t pitch well. We needed everybody to pound the strike zone and we didn’t do it.”

The coaching staff rolled the dice by starting freshman Brody Brecht on the mound, but it didn’t pay off as he struggled with control in the opening inning and the Wolverines jumped out in front. Brecht issued two walks and Jimmy Obertop singled to bring in the first run of the game. Heller quickly brought in Dylan Nedved from the bullpen, but an RBI single from Riley Bertram made it 2-0 Michigan.

The Wolverines added on in the fourth with a pair of sacrifice flies and Iowa found themselves in a 4-0 hole. Unfortunately, for the Hawkeyes, Connor O’Halloran gave Michigan a good start on the mound. He went 4.0 innings, allowing a lone unearned run in the fourth inning, while he struck out two and walked three.

“O’Halloran was really good today. He’s got our number. He shut us out at Michigan (earlier in the year),” said Heller. “He pitched really well again today. Stayed in the game much longer than we had hoped.”

Some drama ensued in the fifth inning, as Michigan head coach Erik Bakich elected to bring in Willie Weiss from the bullpen, but after just five pitches the umpires were called by the Iowa dugout to check his glove. A sticky substance was found, and Weiss was ejected from the game.

“The players saw it and they brought it to Marty (Sutherland) attention during that inning...It was very obvious he was.”

Cameron Weston was forced to enter the game and quickly warmup, which seemed to favor the Hawkeyes, but Weston was lights out. He went 3.0 innings, allowing just three baserunners, while striking out six Hawkeye batters.

“Weston had thrown three days and we felt like there would come a point late in the game where he might run out of gas and we could go another deep in the bullpen,” said Heller. “He absolutely dealt. He was just pounding fastball on the outside corner at the knees, slider, splitter, a full arsenal and was really tough today.”

On the Iowa side, the bullpen unraveled in the seventh inning. Four pitchers threw in the inning, but Michigan blew the game open. Tito Flores ripped a two-run double, which was later followed by a Ted Burton three-run triple and the Wolverines had ballooned the lead to 9-1. They eventually pushed it to 13-1 and the inning ended with nine runs on just three hits, while the Hawkeye pitching staff helped them along with six free bases.

The offense got a couple of hits in the bottom of the inning, but Weston struck out the side and Michigan ended the game with a 13-1 run rule after just seven innings.

With the loss, the Hawkeyes fall to 36-19 on the season and 20-9 against Big Ten teams. At #60 in the RPI rankings, it is unlikely that Iowa hears their name called during the selection show, but Coach Heller was adamant that his team should be in the field of 64.

“If we don’t get in the tournament, it’s a travesty. If anybody deserves to get into the tournament, this team does…We won the last six series in the Big Ten, we swept Indiana last weekend of the season, we won three games in the conference tournament. We won eight out of nine total series and every series on the road in the Big Ten.”

The selection show is at 11:00am Monday morning and will be televised on ESPN2.